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Poll : Second Amendment an individual right

Polling shows that a significant majority
of Americans view the right to bear arms as vested in individuals,
as opposed to states…

A new Harris poll has revealed that by a
2-to-1 margin, American adults are convinced that the Second
Amendment affirms an individual right to keep and bear arms.

Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens
Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said the new poll –
taken between May 5 and 12 – also shows a greater majority of
Republicans than Democrats believe the amendment supports an
individual civil right. Another finding is that only 49 percent of
those surveyed favor stricter gun control, down from 52 percent in
2004 and way down from the 69 percent who favored tougher gun laws
in 1998. Twenty percent want less restrictions on firearms, and 21
percent want no changes in current laws.

“With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to
define whether the Second Amendment means what it says,” Gottlieb
observed, “this new poll makes it clear that the majority of
American adults certainly believe it does. Sometime later this
month, the high court will issue its ruling in District of Columbia
v. Heller, and we expect the court to put an end to almost 70 years
of deliberate misrepresentation by the gun control lobby about the
meaning of the Second Amendment.”

The poll involved 2,602 adults surveyed
online by Harris Interactive. It revealed that people who
identified themselves as Republicans accept the individual right
interpretation of the Amendment by a 51 to 9 percent split, and 33
percent believe the amendment protects both an individual right,
and the right of a state to form a militia. Democrats believe in
the individual rights protection by a margin of 41 percent to 22
percent, with 24 percent believing the amendment protects both an
individual right and a right to form a militia. Independents were
divided by 31 to 22 percent on the issue of individual versus
so-called “collective” right, while 35 percent of independents hold
that the Second Amendment protects both an individual right and a
state’s right to form a militia.